INFIELD IN FOCUS: Derek Jeter, talking publicly for the first time since GM Brian Cashman said he thinks Jeter would fit in center field in a few years, says he’s thinking only about playing shortstop. Photo: Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

PORT ST. LUCIE — There will be no excuses for the Mets. No pity party. That was the word yesterday from David Wright.

“Time to put up or shut up,” Wright told The Post during voluntary workouts at the Mets’ spring training complex.

The Madoff Mess is everywhere, and no one is expecting much from these Mets. Wright, though, doesn’t want to make any excuses — for himself, or for his team.

People have been waiting a long time for David Wright to become the Mets’ leader in the clubhouse. With these comments, he has crossed the threshold.

“Internally, the idea is that things haven’t gone the way that we’ve expected them to go now that I’ve been here seven years,” Wright, 28, explained.

“It’s to the point now where you’ve got to put up or shut up.”

It sure is. The Mets have a new front office in Sandy Alderson & Co., and a new manager in Terry Collins. There will be no coddling of players this season. There is no room for bad actors.

There will be sweeping changes if the Mets continue to play like they have the last few years.

“With what we’ve had the last couple of years, it hasn’t worked, and I’m just as much at fault as anyone else,” Wright admitted.

“It’s time to get it turned around in the right direction. When it’s all said and done, I want to win, and we haven’t done that. I just know how special it was the season that we had in ’06. It was so much fun. I haven’t had that since, and I miss it.

“It’s addicting, and when you don’t get it, you get antsy, and so I want to get back to that. We have to be a team on a mission, no question about it. We have a lot of guys who have to go out there and try to prove themselves this year.”

All the Mets have proved over these last four seasons is that they collapse in tough times.

With the Madoff Ponzi scheme hanging over their heads, nothing will be easy.

The Mets have committed only $8.1 million this offseason to new contracts as the Wilpons cut corners, knowing they were in the financial fight of their lives with trustee Irving Picard, who is seeking as much as $1 billion from Mets ownership.

At least 25 percent of the team is up for sale, and some believe the Wilpons eventually will have to sell the club. The Mets are in the kind of financial mess that can ruin a team.

Jose Reyes is a free agent at the end of the season. Carlos Beltran will be gone after this season, if he’s not traded first. There is an air of uncertainty everywhere.

These Mets have to help themselves, because no one is there to help them.

“Getting down here and playing baseball, you don’t have to listen to every day what’s going on in that situation,” Wright said.

“Once you walk across these lines, it’s almost like a sanctuary. That’s one of the best things for me, to get back out on the baseball field. You don’t have to think about everything.”

Wright loves being in the three spot in this batting order with Reyes leading off. He was wearing an orange T-shirt that read in big, bold letters “Wreak Havoc.”